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Jesus was a Palestinian? That's what one public school textbook says.
Although Jesus lived in a region known in his time as Palestine, the use of the term "Palestinian," with its modern connotations, is among the hundreds of textbook flaws cited in a recent five-year study of educational anti-Semitism detailed in the book "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion."
Authors Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research found some 500 imperfections and distortions concerning religion in 28 of the most widely used social studies and history textbooks in the United States.
But even though Jesus is the founder of Christianity, the question ignores the fact that he was Jewish. And Ybarra said, "The Christian scriptures say that he preached in Judea and Galilee, not Palestine," a term that was used at the time as a less specific description of the broader region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
Ybarra also claims that the textbooks tend not to treat Christianity, Judaism and Islam equally.
"Islam has a privileged position," he said. "It's not critiqued or criticized or qualified, whereas Judaism and Christianity are."
One example is in the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change." It calls the Ten Commandments "moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God," while the entry for the Koran contains no such qualifier in saying it is the "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God."
But Ybarra said it goes deeper than pure economics. He thinks the school books are being used as tools for propaganda, particularly to perpetuate negative attitudes towards Christianity, Israel and pro-Palestinian views concerning the Middle East.
"We fear that this is creating a generation of biased school children," he said. "Some of our projects in the higher education realm with some of these same subject matters, we find that students do show up at universities with these prejudices."
Ybarra maintains that, ultimately, parents and communities need to get involved and demand accountability from school boards, publishers and scholars on what goes into the materials being used to teach fresh, young minds.
And the EXACT borders for a COUNTRY named "Palestine" are????
There is so much false information about this it isn't even funny.
The other false info in text books concerns America. In particular the Civil War and The Mayflower. In text books it is repeated over and over that the people on The Mayflower were "Pilgrims". Not all people aboard The Mayflower were "Pilgrams". There were a FEW.
The Civil War (oh, this is gonna ruffle feathers but I don't want to get into a debate about it). The Civil War was NOT SOLELY because of slavery. It was about states rights and ECONOMICS and had VERY LITTLE to do with slavery. The text books repeatedly fail to mention that during the Civil War many northern states BANNED any freed slaves from moving there. It was okay for a SLAVE to be in those states working for someone - hmm , but NOT a FREED slave. As for the economics of it, the South had most of the top ports of the day. Many of the crops grown and exported were from the south and exported out of the ports in the south. It was a FLOURISHING time in the south economically. Advances were being made in production and they were raking in the dollars from their crops and exporting them to other countries.
If anyone wants to debate these, go right ahead without me. Not because I don't want to........ just that I'm going to be out of town for 2 weeks. Have fun
But, yes, there are a TON of lies and half truths in our text books and it has been that way for decades.
There is a simplicity within textbooks that is beyond irritating sometimes, but isn't this the job of parents to assist in a child's education? Personally, I can't wait for the time when I, a history major, help assist my son or daughter in some of his studies. This, really isn't egregious, however, and I think the OP's first mistake is in reading Fox News for her daily life news. I don't know if you actually believe them when they say that textbooks are inherently anti-Semitic, but my guess is you haven't been examining your child's textbooks lately. Just because Ybara who was interviewed to supply Fox News with their angle for the story doesn't make his notion of 'world against us' any more true. In fact, quite the contrary. Growing up, we were always privy to the news regarding the German war machine, the holocaust, Anne Frank, and the need for an Israeli state. What information we never did receive was the many other holocausts which didn't include Jews or the subsequent Holocaust on the part of Israel toward the Palestinians. I guess to make up for this severe lack of education was to give them Jesus! Haha. Ohh, well.
Anyway, I am perturbed by the idea that there are people who believe it's Anti-Semitic and not simply oversimplifying history. I.E. The United States WON WWII and saved all of Europe from big bad Hitler; The Civil War was only about slavery, etc, etc. The fact is our teachers simply can't go in to a laundry list of details regarding all of the little nuances of war and history that they should. And I really can't blame them -- you do realize that teachers don't have a concentration typically in one area, right? They are people who have to study bits and pieces of many, many topics and they themselves in many cases are probably unable to supplement your child with the amount of information that is necessary.
My advice? Take an interest in your children's learning and simply supplement their textbooks with good, historical readings and help them with it. Sounds like a novel idea to me! (Unless of course, your main reading is the link you provided).
This thread pertains to the thread on this forum about depth versus breadth when it comes to edcuation. Knowing a few little tidbits about all of the events in history is not the same as knowing about several topics in depth. Yes, you may do well on Jeopardy or Trivial Persuit with a very spread out and shallow base of knowledge, but it does no real good.
Yes, Puddy, I agree that parents need to fill in the huge gaps left by traditional textbook education, but if they never studied more than what was required in school, they don't even know what they don't know. It's a catch-22.
There is a simplicity within textbooks that is beyond irritating sometimes, but isn't this the job of parents to assist in a child's education? Personally, I can't wait for the time when I, a history major, help assist my son or daughter in some of his studies. This, really isn't egregious, however, and I think the OP's first mistake is in reading Fox News for her daily life news. I don't know if you actually believe them when they say that textbooks are inherently anti-Semitic, but my guess is you haven't been examining your child's textbooks lately. Just because Ybara who was interviewed to supply Fox News with their angle for the story doesn't make his notion of 'world against us' any more true. In fact, quite the contrary. Growing up, we were always privy to the news regarding the German war machine, the holocaust, Anne Frank, and the need for an Israeli state. What information we never did receive was the many other holocausts which didn't include Jews or the subsequent Holocaust on the part of Israel toward the Palestinians. I guess to make up for this severe lack of education was to give them Jesus! Haha. Ohh, well.
Anyway, I am perturbed by the idea that there are people who believe it's Anti-Semitic and not simply oversimplifying history. I.E. The United States WON WWII and saved all of Europe from big bad Hitler; The Civil War was only about slavery, etc, etc. The fact is our teachers simply can't go in to a laundry list of details regarding all of the little nuances of war and history that they should. And I really can't blame them -- you do realize that teachers don't have a concentration typically in one area, right? They are people who have to study bits and pieces of many, many topics and they themselves in many cases are probably unable to supplement your child with the amount of information that is necessary.
My advice? Take an interest in your children's learning and simply supplement their textbooks with good, historical readings and help them with it. Sounds like a novel idea to me! (Unless of course, your main reading is the link you provided).
I get my news from local tv stations, FOX News, and CNN. I'm skeptical of CNN on some issues because of their anti-military bias I witnessed first hand while serving 8 years in the Navy starting in 1990.
There are elements in universities and within the UN who are deeply against Israel and jews in general.
There are elements in universities and within the UN who are deeply against Israel and jews in general.
Where have you attained this opinion? I wouldn't imagine it was within a university. First, there is rarely, if ever, consensus, especially in the university! I have had courses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and typically, classes are split pretty 50/50 in regards to things. In this conflict, there is little debate as to whether or not Israel is completely bludgeoning Palestine senselessly in all aspects. Why? Because it's happening lol. The debate is how people look at a situation, and it isn't in a uniform manner, the way you seem to think. There are many in universities, myself not necessarily excluded, that looks at the conflict under the guise of Machiavellian self-interest. What Israel does doesn't have to be humane -- it does it for itself. We would be lying if we didn't admit that every other nation-state would do this as well. So anyway, there may be deeply-felt feelings regarding Israel, but there should be. It's an emotional issue wherein much fault is found with Israel, but if you read Fox News and believe it is because of their Jewish heritage? Yeah, I think you're doing yourself a real disservice to both yourself and your children if this is the type of information you want to carry on.
I know this is a bit off-topic to the original thread, but then again, I also think it's important when considering WHY teachers, even if they were educated to the point necessary, can't delve this deep into topics with 5th graders. Although I think it would be good for them, and would create better critical thinking skills, it's highly unrealistic to think that you could accomplish such a task without it getting a) too complex for them, and b) far too much time taken. I think it would make history alot more interesting for children though, but are we really believing that this is possible? How about we as possible parents, do a better job of educating ourselves so we can educate our children?
It's historical facts being rewritten to suit the needs and views of others.
I had one teacher try to tell me in class that Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean to proove the world was round. Poor Amerigo Vespucci. No holidays or parades here in his honor. Any holidays or parades for Leif Ericson?
My advice? Take an interest in your children's learning and simply supplement their textbooks with good, historical readings and help them with it. Sounds like a novel idea to me! (Unless of course, your main reading is the link you provided).
Maybe I'm weird but, as a wee sprat, I considered school an 'introduction' to learning rather than the sum total of education. I'd read something in my history or literature courses then hie myself off to the library for more extensive books on the subjects. Aggravated the cr@p out of some of my teachers when I'd wildly wave my hand and expand on some of the things they were giving a cursory or (to me) not accurate reading 'Course, it also meant I was picked first for the Friday Challenge: we'd divide into teams; each member given a question to answer; the team with the most correct answers wins. Made up for being picked last for teams in PE
Even today and almost-50, reading message boards or the news, I'll come across something interesting, have an "oh, really?" spike and head out to my favorite search engines to look it up.
There is a simplicity within textbooks that is beyond irritating sometimes, but isn't this the job of parents to assist in a child's education? Personally, I can't wait for the time when I, a history major, help assist my son or daughter in some of his studies.
Well said. I can't wait to assist my soon to be born daughter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puddy4LyF
My advice? Take an interest in your children's learning and simply supplement their textbooks with good, historical readings and help them with it. Sounds like a novel idea to me! (Unless of course, your main reading is the link you provided).
Amen to that. Go to the source.....Nuremberg Laws, the Constitution, the Declaration or a soldier's letter from the trenches of WWI. Gave you a rep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwing
Even today and almost-50, reading message boards or the news, I'll come across something interesting, have an "oh, really?" spike and head out to my favorite search engines to look it up.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one. Gave you a rep.
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, but NOT a FREED slave. As for the economics of it, the South had most of the top ports of the day. Many of the crops grown and exported were from the south and exported out of the ports in the south. It was a FLOURISHING time in the south economically. Advances were being made in production and they were raking in the dollars from their crops and exporting them to other countries. 
'Course, it also meant I was picked first for the Friday Challenge: we'd divide into teams; each member given a question to answer; the team with the most correct answers wins. Made up for being picked last for teams in PE 
